“On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation” (Genesis 2:2); “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy” (Exodus 20:8). For orthodox Jews, the observance of the holy Sabbath requires the complete refrainment from any and all acts of creation, by maintaining the status quo in all manner of form and function, from Sabbath eve Friday sundown through Sabbath day Saturday night. And so, as with all new technology, when electricity became commonplace in Jewish homes, the leading rabbinic scholars of that generation were tasked with deciding whether its use was permitted or forbidden on the Sabbath.
After careful consideration, and not an insignificant amount of debate, the accepted conclusion of codified Jewish law was that the use of electricity was permissible in and of itself, however, the act of actually turning the electricity either on or off was strictly forbidden because it involved the fundamental process of creation or destruction by closing or opening electrical circuits. The practical effect therefrom means that, for example, while the use of electric lights during the Sabbath is fully permitted, they must be turned on before the Sabbath begins Friday evening, and remain on throughout the following day until the Sabbath ends Saturday night. Likewise, any light ordinarily turned off at night must be off before the Sabbath begins and remain off until it ends the following day, all of which is necessary in order to avoid the indirect, but still forbidden act of closing or opening an electronic circuit on the Sabbath itself. sFor decades, major kitchen appliances—refrigerators, freezers, and ovens—have utilized external, physically-triggered, spring-loaded sensor switches to detect when their doors were opened and closed. Until more recently, this mechanism was used exclusively for controlling the internal lights, presenting a unique, but solvable problem for orthodox Jews on the Sabbath, who are proscribed from performing any action, directly or indirectly, that inevitably results in the completion or interruption of an electronic circuit, such as turning electric lights on or off by opening or closing an appliance door.
The solution in many Jewish homes to this formidable problem has long been to either unscrew the light bulbs or tape down the appliance sensor switches before the Sabbath starts, thereby preventing the circuits from being completed and the lights from turning on, and to afterward restore the light bulbs or remove the tape once the Sabbath ends. Because of this enormous inconvenience, and more crucially because of the severity of an even unintended transgression, however, this weekly custom has given way to the near universal practice of removing the appliance light bulbs completely, or taping down the sensor switches permanently, in order to avoid accidentally forgetting to deactivate them every Friday evening, resulting in the sub-optimal operation of darkened appliances for the entire week.
As long as these mechanical sensor switches controlled nothing more than the lights themselves, permanently removing the light bulb or restraining the spring sensor switch in a closed position has been the traditional rite of passage for most observant Jewish families upon the purchase of a new appliance, requiring little to no effort or expense to achieve, and involving nothing more than mere inconvenience. With the advent of more modern and sophisticated appliances that now utilize magnetic rather than spring sensor switches, however, a completely new and far more complicated set of problems has arisen which can no longer be so easily addressed, requiring a far more modern and sophisticated solution in order to maintain the sanctity of the Sabbath while operating these appliances.
First, instead of regulating only the interior lights, the new magnetic sensor switches now control a myriad of other critical electronic functions, including control panels, recirculating fans, defrost timers, humidity regulators, expansion valves, and heating elements, none of which can be manually disabled in likewise fashion as a light bulb. Even the interior lights themselves are no longer removable, as they have been replaced with LED bulbs that are built into the appliance housings and cannot be accessed.
Second, the older external, depressible spring sensor switches that used to be easily manipulated by simply sticking them down in the off position have now been supplanted by these newer internal and inaccessible magnetic sensor switches that are embedded beneath the exterior surface of the appliances, and that require proximity engagement with similarly internal and inaccessible magnets that are installed inside the exterior door frames of the appliances, in order to detect when the doors are opened or closed.
While there are a few high-end, expensive appliances with factory “Sabbath Mode” features that purport to deactivate much of the offending electronics, they comprise a predominantly niche market that serves only a limited few, not only because of their high cost, but also because many rabbinic authorities discourage their use after discovering operational anomalies that rely upon controversial interpretations of causation inconsistent with their stricter rulings of Jewish law.
A common independent, inexpensive, and universal solution to this complex Sabbath problem is to replicate the functionality of the interior-installed door magnet by affixing a separate external magnet onto the appliance surface directly opposite the location of the installed magnetic sensor switch where the closed-door magnet would normally be, such that even when the appliance door is opened, the electrical circuit of the magnetic sensor remains opened and thus disabled, as if the door itself is closed.
In practice, however, this is both unworkable and inadvisable because virtually every appliance surface is constructed from a plastic polymer incapable of attracting magnets, and the magnetic surface itself is resistant to bonding with adhesive. Even if a reliable attachment could be achieved, the owner is faced with the same predicament as before of either remembering to install the magnet each week prior to the Sabbath or leaving the magnet in place all week long, which not only disables the lights, but more importantly, shortens the appliance lifespan by severely compromising its essential operating functions.
These and other shortcomings of current technology need a better solution for Sabbath observant Jews who wish to fully utilize modern appliances seven days a week without dishonoring their faith, and without causing permanent damage to their appliances.